Valentines Day Gifts – Why you need one!

Posted: 8th February 2013 Marketing in Campaigns
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Its Valentines Day next week and all Australian males feel?their?wallets quiver and the pressure of expectations upon them. Not so much from their partners but from the barrage of retailers and other marketers all telling them that if they don’t step up?i.e.? spend money and buy their product, then they don’t love their Valentines. Pressure is on men and woman, the hype is real. So, to show her how much you love her, or prove how much you love her, perusing my inbox I have the?following?options, received in the last week:

  • Spoil them with a?magazine subscription. Not convinced.
  • Surprise them, only?if?they are special with champagne. Does this mean, get them drunk and get lucky?
  • Send flowers, lots of flowers, flowers, roses, flowers and more flowers.
  • Find that true love is actually a steak dinner. Works for me!
  • Set up a romantic date, either sailing, driving & dining, hot air ballooning or actually all the same old crap we sell the rest of the year but now they are all Valentines Day gifts. Do we do this on Valentines Day or like in 3 months time on a Saturday?
  • Affordable diamonds to say “I love you”. English clearly not an option to communicate on Valentines Day. No matter how cheap you are, you can afford it on Valentines Day. Oh hang on, that was a spam email.
  • To really show her you love her, buy her a tablet. mmm, yes indeed.

Actually Valentines Day is a fun way to send something anonymous to someone you have a crush on or secretly admire, which can be kinda weird if you are already married and the target of this admiration is not your spouse. Anyway, moving on, it is also a time to recognise the one you love and maybe have a little fun. So getting back to basics, what we recommend.

Our suggestions for V Day

  • Something personal. A handwritten card or letter, poems can be cheesy, but if the shoe fits. Share some feelings, won’t cost a lot and be appreciated
  • Go for a long walk along the beach, sundowners,?something?you would not normally do, outside, nice view. Plenty of places to do this. Just do something different and stop to smell the roses while you are doing it
  • Give all the special people in your life a hug, wives, husbands,?girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, siblings and kids. Make them feel that on Valentines Day they are?special and above all, hugs are generally free, well to most of us they are..
  • If you are traditional and want to go the extra mile, send some flowers. We have?always?liked Roses Only because of their quality, reliability and recognisable branding. But have to say they can be a tad expensive at times, but its worth it?rather?than going through a reseller and not knowing when or exactly what will be delivered. Take this from someone who has felt the pain. This is what I will be sending, and I know I?don’t?have to prove anything, its just kinda a tradition.

So Happy Valentines Day along with the other 25,000 people , blogs, websites, Facebook pages and emails all wishing you the same. Make wise choices and you can make a difference even if you keep your money in your packet. Actions speak louder than gifts.

 

Bupa Sports Zone

Posted: 15th January 2013 Jeff in Campaigns
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Bupa has just released their new Sports Zone on Bupa.com.au in their Health & Wellness section of the website. The Sports Zone plays on their relationship with Cricket Australia and brings you interviews and information as well as tips from cricket coach, Mickey Arthur and Craig McDermott, former international fast bowler. If you are a cricket fan the sports portal will be an interesting place to visit. It is also about the support behind the team, the team that works behind the team so to speak to ensure tip top performance from training, eating, mental strength and supporting technology. Interesting watch and learn, well worth a visit.

There are also sections on Sports Technology and we have to say, we had no idea. We are sure there are many cricketing nations around the world who dream of using technology in this way.

 

 

The nutrition and psychology?are are also good. What makes the psychology area interesting is that many teams have similar levels of skills bit in many cases it is what’s in the head that makes the difference.

 

 

So Bupa Health Insurance is tying this campaign into “finding a healthier you” as well as their “Support” aspect so who is behind the cricket team? Well the support team covers their minds, bodies with nutrition and then fitness for endurance and each of these needs special skills. Likewise when you are trying to find a healthier you, go to a specialist, a support team who can help you on that journey. Make sense? Watch this space…

Christmas Hamper time – What should you send your customers

Posted: 5th December 2012 Marketing in Campaigns
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Its that time of the year again, Ho Ho HO, which can be kind of creepy if you are not in a big red suit wearing a fake grey beard and even more weird if you are?cruising?around around in bad?neighbourhoods?on your own. Moving right along. So, it is Christmas time or Xmas as those on Twitter say, limited characters and all and time to support and look after those who have looked after you during the year, namely friends, family, loved ones and ofcourse your customers and the lines can blur with this.

So what to send. Something too personal and you may cross a line you should not. Something too generic and it adds no value. Decisions, decisions…

We have found health to be a bigger and bigger deal and while flowers are too personal, toys or other objects too broad and need to be customised by individual, fruit is often a good idea and something?different. ?After all you want to be remembered don’t you. This as is everything in business is about?getting?a return. Sorry to sound ruthless.

So how do you get your customers to remember you and note that you are special amongst the clutter of gifts and hampers they receive at Christmas time. Well, looking at messaging and how messages become memorable we might get some tips. Similar principles apply:

Corporate Christmas Gift Tips

  1. Keep it simple, a common theme e.g. fruit, wine, cheeses not many different things
  2. Be unexpected. Violate their expectations. While everyone is sending them bottles of wine, send them some underwear. (Just kidding).
  3. Try relate the gift back to an element or attribute of what your business does! Give a connection and make sure they get it
  4. Visually stimulating. Make everyone else in the office jealous. Make an entrance. Make it recognisable. Make them feel special.
  5. Be credible, send the gift from a quality provider, don’t let them think you have scrimped,?i.e. no name champagne. Its Verve, Moet or nothing! Right?
  6. Stir emotions, refer back to how long you have worked?together?or how much you enjoy working together. Make them shed a tear. Its Christmas after all.
  7. Check leave schedules. A perishable gift on their desk over the Summer Christmas closing period may not give the impression desired!!

Don’t s

  • Don’t go over the top, may make senior management nervous of the?relationship. Overseas trips are over the top no matter what you may think…
  • Careful of links. I send you a gym membership, am I implying you are fat? I send soap, am I implying you are?unhygienic? Think these through
  • Don’t play favourites if more than 1 gift goes to the same organisation!
  • You want to make sure firstly what you ordered is delivered, not a cover version and also that it will in fact get delivered before Christmas and in this case most likely before the 21st December

Think about the gifts you got last year. Can you remember one? Are some of them still rotting in your office? Take that as a guide. So get your PA to sit down, do his or her research and to find options which meet the criteria above and also are costed?effectively. Be clear on your order, get it in wiring and stick with your budget.

Corporate Christmas Gift Ideas

Well after all that advice we guessed you might want to?know?what we are sending out this year. Well I have to admit we sent these hampers out last year and got the most responses and thankyou’s we have ever received from any year. Many of our customers are female and being a part of Roses Only the brand recognition of the HampersOnly Christmas Hampers is high and scores brownie points. They are not the cheapest, but we know what will be delivered is what we see on the site and that they will get delivered on time. Roses Only Customer service is also good. So this is not a paid advertisement as you may be suspecting, but rather some gift advice for those hunting around for corporate gifts this Christmas.

If it is champagne you want to send, if there is something to?celebrate?then while Hampersonly can do this, we have also used Dan Murphys?and they were pretty good and well priced. Finally sending fruit is also a great idea, also from RosesOnly, dare we mention them again. Sorry this is actually they Fruit Only site?which?looks pretty basic but is part of the family and comes branded etc.

So good luck. make your customers happy and above all make them remember and appreciate you. Oh, and have a Merry Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Ticketek new mobile platform

Posted: 23rd November 2012 Marketing in Campaigns
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When the new Pink concert was announced, and don’t we all love Pink, nearly 200,000 people visited the mobile site on that day to buy tickets. We knew Pink would be big, but not that big. Wow. We also knew mobile was or is going to be big but it is really coming into its own now. Cameron Hoy of Ticketek confirmed that they are seeing huge growth in this space. Mr Hoy also mentioned that Ticketek will be coming out with an iPhone App, lets hope it can handle the massive volumes going forward, but nevertheless this could be like a gold rush. Once I have the app that will be the go to place, why bother with Ticketmaster for example. First in, best dressed if you know what I mean. You can also see the press release here.

Well mobile is here, young people will buy tickets, the perfect match, Prepare your mobile online presence or be lost forever.

 

 

This is seriously gross

Posted: 24th July 2012 ws in Campaigns
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Naked has put up the new campaign for Oxy. Man sized pimples. This is not for the faint hearted and seriously gross. No one in the office has ever haqd a piple this large, these are more like boils and if you do you have issues that we think you might need more than Oxy to fix, maybe a silver bullet and holy water. This is zombie level. Hospitalisation for sure.

Anyway while we catch our breath this is sure to get some attention. You have been warned:

 

FOMO WTF?

Posted: 17th July 2012 ws in Campaigns, Internet Marketing
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So the good folks at Kimberly Clark are at it again. Now that we know what Gripples are, you can read more below, the next on the list is FOMO.  Heard of it? Although FOMO is not really a secret it is a new concept and seen as my teenage daughter used the word with me pretending to know what it meant, I  thought it might be good to understand more.

FOMO

According to UbyKotex, FOMO stands for “Fear of missing out”. Fair enough, I can relate to that, fear of missing out on gossip in the office, fear of missing out on freebie hand outs in Martin Place, fear of missing out on an important email, hopefully giving me a raise… Anyway, reading further in the FOMO moments section on UbyKotex I discovered NO, this is far more serious and a matter of life and death. You might actually miss a party or god forbid a Facebook update. These things are important when you are a teenager or in your early twenties. I guess there is not much else to miss out on, when you get older you go to jail for missing out the important things like mortgage payments or the traffic officer waving you down on the side of the road. In fact we think as you get older FOMO works the other way, you have a fear of remaining involved or getting sucked in, when actually you want to be home in front of the TV  playing the Xbox or watching movies.

Nevertheless lets not harp on the about the good old days, the digital age and being “always on” has driven FOMO and it is nevertheless an interesting and unfolding campaign driven by the website and social media. The trick we guess is whether teen girls, I assume will start using this in their everyday speak, texts and vernacular. Not sure how this ultimately relates to tampons and liners but Im sure they have a plan to link these at some stage.

Official Definition

According to the Wiki, the source of all human knowledge, FOMO is officially and it must be right if it is on the WIKI, a fear of having to choose between social situations and the fear and anxiety of being unable to attend one. Oh the problems of the first world? Maybe I’m just not being invited to enough social functions to have this problem. Note to self, “Get out more” Actually before you get too paranoid, according the the Wiki again, the source of all human knowledge, FOMO is apparently a genetic disorder and if one of you has it, your whole family has it. Well not mine, no one really gives a shit most of the time. I digress.

Finally FOMO

Actually I think we may have had slight FOMO with respect to the Gripples campaign. Just saying…

Online real time restaurant booking services for Australia

Posted: 5th July 2012 ws in Campaigns
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Well, this is not our normal sort of post, but we did like the sound of this. An online real time booking service for restaurants in Australia. Apparently launched in May 2012 the company is called Dimmi and they also have an iPhone App launched in June which has a fancy augmented reality feature.  Just search for Dimmi Restaurants in iTunes. Don’t know if there is an Android App but if there isnt they migh want to think about one, as the new Samsung Galaxy III is pretty good, finally a decent Android device. But I digress.

So essentially the Dimmi Restaurants website has around 31,000 pages indexed also allows you to rate and review your favourite restaurants. Now for those of you who watch Google you would know that they have recently updated Places into Google + and have the Zagat ratings, so watch this space it will get interesting. They (Dimmi) also have yet another loyalty plan for reviews, nothing like a incentivised review, and apparently after 8,000 points you can get a $50 voucher, which is good if you’re eating at McDonalds but bad if you are eating at Tetsuya’s.

While initially we were sceptical we might have to eat our review because per the rewards page you get 1,000 points for a review. So if you do 80 restaurants you might get to eat alone at Tetsuya’s but hang on how would you have paid for the 80 reviews? Just kidding, this is not bad if you eat our regularly, better than a kick in the pants and certain better than Google pays which is zilch, zero, niks, nothing…

Also we understand they have some exclusive deals but what we really dug was the Australian Dining Index which we stole below, well not actually we just linked to it, so if you are from Dimmi, relax, you are still getting a link, don’t send us rude emails. This is a great info-graphic:

 

Dimmi Australian Dining Index

 

Surprise, surprise the ACT spends the most on meals, 34% in fact and I guess so would you if taxpayers were paying for your dinner. But interesting, most bookings in the ACT are for 2 people. What is going on there? No surprises we book 7 days ahead odd and Darlinghurst is the main place to eat. Very interesting, good effort, like it. Personally we think Newtown restaurants should have been the top spot, but hey we re not biased in anyway.

Good luck to Dimmi, sad to see a number of top restaurants battling with the economy so it may not be easy out there if you are in the restaurant or restaurant booking business, but this looks interesting and we think will be something to watch. Dimmi allows you to book on their website or on the restaurants website into a standard system and solves an issue that has been there for awhile, and also wraps a lot of stats and data for the restaurant into the service. You can see how it works here. If you were wondering if this was a fly by night, wonder no further, there are some serious players on the Board.

So watch Dimmi in the restuarant space, interesting solution and now we just have to remember not to call and get frustrated with answering machines but to book online and know the system will deliver us a table on the other end.

 

Gripples website updated

Posted: 1st July 2012 ws in Campaigns, Digital Assets
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Just so you dont die wondering, the gripples page is updated. Doesn’t tell us what they are but there is more info. Interesting. Anyone worried or care? Lets see how this unfolds, not seeing too much other advertising at the moment. lets see what the week brings?

The video we have to say are entertaining, pit you cannot embed it easily, but check it out here: http://thegrippleeffect.com.au/

This is interesting, if not entertaining and the video is great. Everyday Australians wondering what a gripple is. Be interesting to see what the week brings. Fences, napkins or training pants.

Anyone aware of any other interesting secret campaigns being run at the moment?

Have a good week.

Hillarious Video

Posted: 29th June 2012 ws in Digital Assets
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Another national treasure, oh and good luck to all our fine athletes heading off to London…

 

The Gripple Effect

Posted: 23rd June 2012 ws in Campaigns, Social Media
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Anybody have any idea what is about. So it is an ad, hopefully better than the Blackberry Bold for business attempt. Where is that campaign now? We would link to it but cannot recall the domain and a search on Be Bold just shows up the main website.

Anyway, back to The Gripple Effect, you’ve been warned! The “Who is” shows the registrant as J Walter Thompson but nothing else, no links no nothing. What could the gripple effect be we ask. Could this be an ad for a tyre or a new shoe. Sounds like a thong, but unlikely given it is winter. We are thinking gripple = grip = tread?

Some lucky people have been grippled already, just ask Mary, John, Winston and Doris. Really? So it is also a verb and an adjective. I’ve been grippled? Im enjoying grippling.

The Gripple is an Ad?

Yes, but for what. Which company is behind the gripple. Anyone know any of the folk over at JWT?

Gripple is also a company that provides joiners and tensioners. Officially a gripple is a device used to join and tension wire. We are thinking that this industrial company is not involved. But maybe this is something to help you with stress, tension or joining into something. Pretty thin we say.

So tension, tread related? Here are some of our ideas:

  • Maybe a conveyor belt to bring you your VB on a Saturday afternoon?
  • New shoe with a special tread for urban yuppies, maybe from North Face?
  • New training pants which also reduce cellulite through the gripples around the bum, as you walk? That would be neat. Hello Nike!
  • New free hug campaign to build peace and goodwill. Give your neighbour a gripple. Just not in front of his wife?
  • Small irritating green people who steal and break your stuff while you are sleeping. Off shoot of gremlins? Maybe a movie?
  • New car tyre which will give you the freedom of the open road, when they know you only drive to work and back? Michelin?
Hold on, seems like Mary, John, Winston and Doris found this personal, something they enjoyed doing?
  • We have it. New iPhone or iPad app called, you guessed it. The Gripple Effect, and the page says you can spread it, which implies technology.
  • If you were in Melbourne trying to hold a drink a cup of coffee when the earthquake hit, you may have had a gripple effect, being cross between dribble and gripping and the resulting spillage. But then the abovementioned would not have enjoyed it, right?

Anyway, interesting concept, interesting campaign.

So we will wait

So until the 1st July, get your tax planning done, get your last sales in place and think about what a gripple is and whether this will really change you life or just be underwhelming, again. Until then, get grippled, eat a gripple, whateva!

 

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